Ethanol production from the water hyacinth Eichhornia crassipes by yeast isolated from various hydrospheres

Water hyacinth is a promising plant for the production of bioethanol. The water hyacinth was saccharified with diluted sulfuric acid and fermented to ethanol by yeast obtained from different hydrospheres. We found that the best conditions for water hyacinth hydrolysis were 1% (v/v) sulfuric acid at 121 degrees C for 1 h. In the next step, we searched for yeast that could produce ethanol from the water hyacinth hydrolysate. For this, 624 strains were isolated from 28 bodies of water. Strain 484 produced 22.4 ml of ethanol/kg of dried water hyacinth, which suggests that it may be an efficient producer of bioethanol. Through sequence analysis, we identified strain 484 as Candida intermedia.